News
Bloomberg | Europe Manufacturing Expands for First Time in Two Years
Euro-area manufacturing unexpectedly expanded in July for the first time in two years, led by Germany, adding to signs the currency bloc’s economy is emerging from a record-long recession.
Gallup | In U.S., Economic Confidence Stalls
Americans are less upbeat about the economy now than they were in May and June. Gallup's U.S. Economic Confidence Index held steady at -12 last week, but the current score is substantially lower than the five-year weekly high of -3 reached in late May and early June.
National Journal | What to Do With the Highway Trust Fund?
Any discussion of the surface-transportation bill in recent years has focused on the Highway Trust Fund, and that dynamic shows no signs of changing anytime soon.
FOX Business | New Home Sales Hit Five-Year High
Sales of new U.S. single-family homes vaulted to a five-year high in June, showing little signs of slowing in the face of higher mortgage rates.
CNN Money | Are big banks driving up commodity prices?
Think you're paying more for gas, electricity and soda? You could be right. And some people think big banks could be to blame.
Econ Comments & Analysis
WSJ | Treasury's Fannie Mae Heist
The federal government currently is seizing the substantial profits of the government-chartered mortgage firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, taking for itself the property and potential gains of private investors the government induced to help prop up these companies. This conduct is intolerable.
Washington Times | Accommodating failure
President Obama hopes to take the nation’s attention away from the IRS scandals and a royal baby (good luck with that) with a speech Wednesday. His topic, the economy, isn’t an obvious one, considering miserable economic growth numbers and 7.6 percent unemployment.
Trulia Trends | Sorry, Mom and Dad: The Kids Aren’t Moving Out Yet
Household formation is the most important measure of the housing recovery that hasn’t bounced back yet. The latest population data show that young adults are still living with their parents – even if they have jobs.
Mercatus | A Market-Driven Nominal GDP Targeting Regime
In recent decades, there has been a worldwide shift toward market-driven economic policies, including privatization, deregulation of market access, bandwidth auctioning, congestion pricing, and tradable pollution permits.
AEI | GSE reform bills are right to end Fannie and Freddie
We, at last, have two bills in Congress – one in the House and one in the Senate – addressing the long-festering problem of what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and proposing a housing finance sector without them.
Blogs
WSJ | Construction Index Dips in June, Still Shows Growth
A leading indicator of U.S. construction activity dipped slightly in June, but remained in positive territory for the second-straight month, reflecting recovery in the commercial real-estate sector.
Neighborhood Effects | Why Regulations Fail
Last week, David Fahrenthold wrote a great article in the Washington Post, in which he described the sheer absurdity of a USDA regulation mandating a small town magician to develop a disaster evacuation plan for his rabbit (the rabbit was an indispensible part of trick that also involved a hat).
WSJ | Majority of Americans Say U.S. Still in Recession
The economy may be sputtering along. But it hasn’t been in recession for more than four years. More than half of Americans think it still is.
Calculated Risk | A Few Comments on New Home Sales
As I noted over the weekend, the key number in the existing home sales report is not sales, but inventory. It is mostly visible inventory that impacts prices. When we look at sales for existing homes, the focus should be on the composition between conventional and distressed, not total sales. So, for those who follow housing closely, the existing home sales report on Monday was solid even though sales were down.
